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A review by adamsgardner10
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
4.0
Steinbeck plays the original Bill Bryson here, with fewer witty asides and a few more sweeping observations about America – “generalities”, he calls them. Writing at a time (1962) we look back on now as simple and stable, he drives a big loop around the country with a camper on his pickup and a poodle in the passenger seat.
I really liked the range of people whose stories he tells, and the characterization of Charley the poodle. Especially interesting are the parts where Steinbeck passes through your home states (praises flinty, forthright New Englanders; nostalgic, but gracefully self-aware about it, for the California of his youth).
Did he embellish some details and reconstruct some dialogue? Yep. Does it take away from the book? Not at all. A warm and wise chronicler of the country and its people.
I really liked the range of people whose stories he tells, and the characterization of Charley the poodle. Especially interesting are the parts where Steinbeck passes through your home states (praises flinty, forthright New Englanders; nostalgic, but gracefully self-aware about it, for the California of his youth).
Did he embellish some details and reconstruct some dialogue? Yep. Does it take away from the book? Not at all. A warm and wise chronicler of the country and its people.